


This Secret Garden is Not Even a Garden

by Synxailla



Category: Batman - All Media Types, DCU, DCU (Comics)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Fairy Tale, Fairy Tale Elements, Fairy Tales, Flirting, JayTimWeek, JayTimWeek2020, M/M, Magic, Magical Realism
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-04
Updated: 2020-06-04
Packaged: 2021-03-03 18:55:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,325
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24530416
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Synxailla/pseuds/Synxailla
Summary: Tim gets to work. He tells himself the eagerness to get the job done is just part of his work ethic as a professional guild adventurer. And not that he’s keen on finishing up the mission soon to go on a hot date with his newly acquainted dashing stranger.
Relationships: Tim Drake/Jason Todd
Comments: 12
Kudos: 95
Collections: JayTimWeek





	This Secret Garden is Not Even a Garden

**Author's Note:**

> Hello! Here is my entry for JayTimWeek2020 Day 2 prompt: Fairy Tales/Disney Princesses OR Book Inspired AU. I chose the Fairy Tales prompt and even then it's got like, the loosest elements of fairy tales.
> 
> Why am I posting for a Day 2 prompt when we're well into day 3/4, you ask? Where is my entry for the Day 1 prompt, you say? These are the questions that will forever remain a mystery I guess.
> 
> Kidding aside, I don't think I have enough time to fill all the days, and I chose to fill the day 2 prompt because the Fairy Tale setting appealed to my inner kid.

The life of a professional guild adventurer is not nearly as grand as most people seem to think.

Tim has been going round and round in circles for what feels like forever. Everywhere he turns, he sees the same generic view of the woodlands he foolishly went into, thinking it would lead him to his current mission’s destination.

“Stupid second-rate magic map,” Tim grumbles as he unfolds the parchment for what must be the hundredth time that day. What kind of map doesn’t even specify which way is north? Does it even follow map standards? And what kind of markers are those?

“ _Fountain of Thorns_ my butt.” Tim scoffs.

He thought about doing a locator spell. More than that, he tried casting one. Several even.

They all failed because life hates Tim and the woodlands are covered in a thick layer of old magic that refuses to work well with Tim’s modern spells.

He’s starting to regret not listening to Bruce when he droned on about the importance of knowing ancient incantations… Sue him, Tim has selective hearing, and he figured there was only like, a five percent chance at best of him needing those skills.

Turns out finding the “Secret Garden” fell into that five percent though.

“If only I brought that stupid Ancient Spells book,” Tim sighs as he folds away the useless map and stuffs it in his pack. “This is going nowhere,” he huffs.

Tim decides it’s time for an executive decision.

He stretches out his arm in front of him, pointing his finger forward. Then he closes his eyes and starts humming the Song of Witches under his breath and spinning in a circle.

He stops as the song ends, taking a second to let the dizziness pass, and then Tim opens his eyes and looks at the direction his hand is pointing to.

It looks very much like the other patches of woodland.

Tim walks onward.

Looks like blindly trusting old dead witches for mystic guidance paid off, as about an hour into walking, Tim sees a structure not far off that _finally_ deviates from the cookie-cutter view of trees and semi-tall grass.

It’s a statue of a woman, covered in bushes. There’s a stone basin around her... It looks like a dried up fountain. A fountain covered in bushes… Wait, are those _rose_ bushes?

“Fountain of Thorns,” Tim whispers in realization. He brings out the maybe-not-so useless map and checks the marker.

The entrance to the Secret Garden is near the Fountain of Thorns. Unfortunately Tim can't be sure of the distance since the scaling of the map is suspect at best… But it’s supposed to be somewhere to the left of it. Unless the map is upside down that is.

Tim looks to the left, seeing nothing there aside from more trees and grass. He’s about to be so annoyed until he sees a faint shimmer in the air. Tim narrows his eyes and cautiously moves closer.

There’s definitely something there, concealed by a powerful illusion… Tim tries dispelling it, but it must be of old magic origin too, because his attempts fall useless.

“ _Really_ wish I had that Ancient Spells book,” Tim says. And then something falls from the sky and lands by his feet.

Tim holds very, very still and murmurs a quick protection ward over himself. Then he leans over and looks at the thing.

It’s a freaking Ancient Spells book.

Tim gets out his extendable staff and pokes it. It remains a book.

“I wish I had the Seed of the Garden,” Tim calls out to test the phenomenon.

When seconds pass and nothing happens, he accepts that this adventure would be too easy if wishing the end goal was possible anyway. He bends down and picks up the book.

Using his talents of scanning and skimming information until he finds his target, Tim picks out the Ancient Magic’s version of the disillusionment charm. He uses it and a gate made of stone and steel melts into existence.

This must be the entrance the map was talking about. It looks sturdy and there’s a door with a keyhole. But Tim knows better than to try and pick magical locks.

“Guess I’ll have to bomb you open,” Tim tells the door.

“Or you could knock,” a voice says from behind him, startling Tim.

He turns and adopts a defensive stance, book tucked close, his staff at ready. The man that spoke greets Tim’s glare with an amused snicker.

The stranger is tall, and dressed like an adventurer, only with more dark leather than strictly necessary. It blends nicely with his dark hair and the red accents on his outfit make him look dashing. He’s casually leaning against the fountain, seemingly unbothered by the thorn bushes.

“Is that any way to thank the guy who lent you a book?” the dashing stranger asks with a raised brow and a smirk.

Tim keeps his eyes and weapon trained on the guy. His hand tightens on the book.

“Are you a djinn?”

“Nope,” the stranger says, pushing away from the fountain and taking a step closer. “I’m Jason.”

Tim grudgingly believes the guy isn’t a djinn, in spite of him granting one of Tim’s wishes earlier. Djinns can’t give their name (fake or real) to anyone. It’s part of their nasty enslavement.

“I’m Alvin,” Tim says, not letting his guard down. Even though Jason _looks_ like a human adventurer, he could still be any number of magical creatures in disguise. It’s standard practice to keep true names protected.

“Nice to meet ya,” Jason says. His smile has an edge to it that Tim should probably find threatening but he knows he can hold his own if it ever comes to a fight.

“Where did you come from?” Tim asks. “I didn’t sense you at all.”

“I’m stealthy,” Jason replies with a proud smirk.

“What are you doing here?”

“Just passing by,” Jason shrugs and looks at Tim with sharp blue eyes.

“In the middle of the woods?” Tim asks, unconvinced and not trying to hide he’s unimpressed.

“Yup.” Jason doesn’t look bothered by Tim’s skepticism. “I saw you and thought to myself, ‘hey, why not help a fellow adventurer in obvious distress?’ and so I did.”

“I wasn’t in distress.” Tim’s hand tightens on his staff.

“You literally couldn’t dispel a simple illusion.”

“It was done in Ancient Magic!” Tim groans in exasperation. “It’s a dead practice and has been overtaken by modern spells that don’t have side effects of burning a caster’s hand off for any tiny mistake.”

“Consequences are half the fun of old magic,” Jason says with another dangerous smile. “You did well enough when you used it.”

The casual compliment takes Tim a little by surprise.

“I only managed because you lent me this book,” Tim says, deflating a little from his defensive stance. “Thanks.”

“You’re welcome,” Jason says, looking pleased with himself. “So, _Alvin,_ what are you doing here?”

Tim reconsiders his situation… If Jason wanted to hurt him, he would’ve made a move already right? And it’s not like Tim can’t protect himself if an attack ever came. Also he’s going to need Jason’s book if he wants to cast useful spells in these forsaken woods shrouded in old magic.

If Jason really _does_ want to help like he said, then Tim’s really in no position to deny it.

“I’m looking for a garden,” Tim says.

“In the middle of the woods?” Jason says, looking thrilled to be throwing Tim’s words from earlier back at him. He even says it with the same skeptic cadence.

Tim rolls his eyes. “It’s a _Secret Garden_ , for my mission. I’m pretty sure this is the entrance.” he gestures with his staff to the gate behind him.

“And you wanna bomb it open, right?” Jason walks closer. “Excessive much?”

“Well I don’t have the key, and picking the lock most definitely triggers a curse.”

“Do you know if it’s even locked?” Jason says, standing beside Tim now.

And wow, he’s really a head taller than Tim huh? Broad shouldered too. And he looks much younger up close than what Tim initially thought. Maybe a couple of years older than Tim. His dark blue eyes and easy smirk are distracting…

Tim snaps his gaze away and clears his throat.

“Uhm,” Tim stalls as his brain rewinds back to Jason’s words. Then he blinks at the question. “Actually no, I don’t know if it’s locked.”

“Then let’s find out,” Jason says and raises his hand as if to put it on the door.

 _“Wait,”_ Tim says and Jason’s hand stops, hovering mid-air.

Tim murmurs the same protection ward spell from earlier and casts it over Jason. The taller adventurer blinks at him, then he smiles, without an edge this time.

“Thanks,” Jason says with a nod. He places his hand on the door’s handle below the keyhole and gives a push.

The door slowly nudges open. Looks like it isn’t locked after all.

Once the door is fully open, Jason lets go and steps back beside Tim. They both look at the open passage in shock.

“Hate to break it to you pal,” Jason says after a minute. “But this Secret Garden is not even a garden.”

Inside, there are shelves upon shelves and stacks upon stacks of nondescript books.

“Why is there a library in the middle of the woods?” Tim asks in a whisper.

“I dunno, but I kinda dig it.” Jason smiles and steps inside. “You coming?” he turns to ask Tim.

Tim sighs and goes in after him.

“There must be a clue somewhere in here,” Tim mutters, looking with dread at the amount of books inside. “I can’t believe I’m gonna have to skim through all these.”

“I thought your mission was to find this Secret Garden?” Jason asks, already flipping through a book with a green cover. “Maybe it’s a garden of words or some shit. What do you need in the garden exactly?”

Tim halts on what to say… It’s not that this mission demands a strict secrecy mandate. It’s even rooted to a very public problem. It’s just that he’s not really sure if he should trust Jason to be one of the good guys that don’t want to aggravate the problem Tim’s mission is trying to solve.

But well, he’s trusted Jason up to here so far…

“You know how these woodlands are shrouded in old magic?” Tim asks, and Jason nods. “My guild came across a prophecy some time ago. Basically if I don’t find the “Seed” located in the Secret Garden here in these woods, and bring it to life, the old magic asleep in here will turn volatile and spread throughout the continent.”

“Huh,” Jason says. “So a pretty standard world-saving mission then.”

Tim huffs a laugh. “Yeah, they’re pretty much all that come in the mail nowadays.”

“I’ll help you look for this Seed,” Jason says, sounding sincere.

“You sure? We may spend a lot of time sorting through these.” Tim gestures at the immense amount of books. “Don’t you have your own adventure to attend to?”

“I’m between jobs,” Jason says with another playful smirk. “Besides I happen to love books so you lucked out there.”

“Yeah, lucky me,” Tim says with his own smile. “Okay, thank you for deciding to help me out.”

“You’re welcome,” Jason says again, this time with more warmth. “After we save the world, we should totally go on a date.”

Tim sputters.

“Y-yeah?”

“Yeah,” Jason says, then his smile turns sharp again. “Right now I’ll settle for your real name though.”

Tim’s heart skips a beat. He debates his options. In the end Jason’s easy charm and sincere but sharp smile convinces Tim to relent.

If Jason ends up being a Fae and tries to hold dominion over Tim by knowing his name, he can always break out the not-exactly-legal curse cutting blade Tim’s late mother left behind.

“My name is Tim,” he says.

“Tim,” Jason looks thoughtful as he repeats it. Then he gives a nod. “Yeah it suits you.”

The approval in Jason’s voice shouldn’t make Tim’s toes want to curl, but it does.

“So, you agree to partner up in this mission?” Tim asks. “You’ll help me look for the Seed and bring it to life? Can I keep using your book of Ancient Magic while we’re on the mission?”

“Yeah,” Jason says and gives the book in Tim’s hand a brief look. “I’m pretty excited to see how you’ll use the spells in there. I’ve never seen anyone as natural as you in casting unfamiliar spells.”

This time the compliment makes Tim blush.

“I just regularly brush up on basics,” Tim says and looks away from Jason’s smile. “If I get backlash from the old magic though, I expect you to step up and support me.”

“Of course,” Jason agrees. “I can’t have you getting injured before our date now can I?”

Tim hopes this team-up will not be as distracting as the last few minutes have proved to be. He really does need to save the world if he wants to keep his membership at the Bat Guild.

“Let’s just get to it,” Tim says and walks over to a neat pile of books. “I’ll start with this pile and you start at the other end of the room. We’ll work our way through and meet in the middle. Let me know if you find anything.”

“Bossy,” Jason says but the almost-purr in his voice tames the complaint. He moves over to the other end of the room just as Tim instructed.

Tim gets to work.

He tells himself the eagerness to get the job done is just part of his work ethic as a professional guild adventurer. And not that he’s keen on finishing up the mission soon to go on a hot date with his newly acquainted dashing stranger.

—end—

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading! Sorry it felt like such a short slice of adventure thing.
> 
> I have some more ideas for this AU but I don't have time right now to flesh it out.  
> Maybe once I'm done with my other fic I can come back to this world. I'm a slow writer and don't need another WIP making me guilty for not writing enough right now.


End file.
